“For this my lamp is lit, to the grief of the owls, and often burns till lark-song.”
—Lord Dunsany, The Charwoman's Shadow
I explore how the lack of Structure/Procedure in games published since the 90s places excessive demands on the DM to determine everything by hand, encourages linear adventure design, and facilitates commercialisation as DMs become more reliant on running players through purchased campaigns because coming up with their own worlds has been made onerous.
I draw a distinction between rules which answer questions for the players and rules which raise questions and new challenges of their own.
Around the time I wrote this, others in the OSR were exploring similar ideas using the terminology of procedural rules.
I look at how different layers of mechanics in games work together to create meaning, as well as how simple, repeatable fun can serve as a foundation on which to build novel and powerful experiences in play.
What makes tabletop roleplaying so compelling? I explore this question as a prerequisite to thinking about how to design and run compelling games.